Beamer wrote on Feb 5, 2013, 10:49:How long did consoles really blow us away?

C'mon, Doom came out in 1993. It was far better graphically than anything the SNES, only two years old then, could produce.

Yes, true, but it also took nearly two decades for a PC to be able to handle emulating a 16-bit console. While the PC's had Doom, the sound hardware on a PC was decidedly lacking compared to console. PC's could do a really crappy midi or a really compressed digital audio which sounded almost as bad. Even if the soundtrack of the game was good, you needed a Roland soundcard to here it like it was meant to be. The SNES has no problem in that area. In fact, a lot of older 16-bit RPG 'soundtracks' are very popular (especially from Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy). On the graphics side, it wasn't a case of which was necessarily better at everything but rather each had it's own strengths and weaknesses. Hardware was much more stylized and proprietary which made it harder to code for unless you knew said hardware intimately. PC's were just starting to come into a standardized modular design. (Unless you bought a Packard Bell, then all bets were off! ) While PC's did 3D and polygons better, the SNES did scaling and 2D far better. While there were hundreds of 2D 'shoot-em ups' on console, PC had one in the early 90's, Raptor. (There was also Zone66 and later Firefight, when DirectX and Win95 were in their infancy, but still no match for console) PC's had joysticks and a mouse, but the best way to game was still a joypad. PC's wouldn't get a decent pad until the Playstation was a household name and 3D accelerators were commonplace, along with their more sophisticated games...

Back in the 90's, when a new console was going to come out, the anticipation was enormous. The whole industry held their collective breaths and speculated on the 'unbelievable' hardware. Each generation would be the one to bring 3D and VR home. The games would be something never seen before and the wait for release was agonizing. That was how consoles were supposed to be. They were to be the trend setters that the PC's would aspire to beat given time. They always did. But now it's not even a contest. And now, a new console generation is a 'take it or leave it' kind of thing, not a 'OMG!!!' moment like it was when the first Sony Playstation was announced and then released first in Japan. The console gamers over here at the time would have gladly shaved themselves bald and tattoo any phrase on their skulls for one. eBay didn't exist so the only other option was to pay over $1000 (I know because I seriously considered doing it) to have one shipped here. But then it could only play games made in Japan. But it didn't matter. Just having the thing would have been an honor. You don't see that anymore because the hardware is not such a leap as a it used to be and not nearly as exotic...

=-Rigs-=

So full of hate were our eyes, that none of us could see our war would yield countless dead, but never victory. So let us cast arms aside, and like discard our wrath. Thou, in faith, will keep us safe. Whilst we find The Path. - Halo:Contact Harvest

That was the point of consoles in the 90's, to blow us away with these 'amazing' visuals and awesome, never-seen-before games and gameplay.

I totally agree with that, it's becoming more and more expensive year after year, and multi (in some case hundred) million $ releases are making and breaking companies. Not to mention the longer dev time. At some point soon, we're going to hit a brick, if we've not done so already (I suspect we're about there).

Oh, for Christ- 'capable of DX11 performance'?! Big frakin' deal! Um, hello, it's 2013 and DX11 has been a viable platform since 2008-ish! WTF?! If I buy a new 'NEXT GEN' console, I want it to blow my socks to Cleavland! Not just be capable of doing what my 2 year old PC can do already! That was the point of consoles in the 90's, to blow us away with these 'amazing' visuals and awesome, never-seen-before games and gameplay. If it doesn't have that, then what the hell is the point? If the console isn't able to out-do current PC's, then buy a frakin' PC and consoles become irrelevant...

=-Rigs-=

So full of hate were our eyes, that none of us could see our war would yield countless dead, but never victory. So let us cast arms aside, and like discard our wrath. Thou, in faith, will keep us safe. Whilst we find The Path. - Halo:Contact Harvest